Gary Pinkel and Mike Alden Talk to Fans in Google Hangout

COLUMBIA – Missouri’s head football coach Gary Pinkel and athletic director Mike Alden held the fifth annual Google Hangout with Pinkel Wednesday afternoon. Fans were able to interact with Pinkel and Alden to ask questions.

MU sports fans entered the conversation by tweeting Pinkel, attaching questions to the hashtag “hangoutwithGP.” A few fans were able to video chat with Pinkel and Alden during the Google Hangout.

The conversation covered SEC recruiting, the construction being done on the stadium and how the construction has increased ticket sales.

Pinkel was asked to address what changes had to be made in the recruiting process after joining the SEC.

“We knew there was going to be a transition when we entered the SEC,” said Pinkel. “We have to sign off on the state of Missouri, the state of Missouri is the most important to us. But we have to decide where we want to go in terms of where the top-level players are in the SEC land.”

Alden, who was participating in his first ever Google Hangout, talked about the construction going on in the stadium.

“We knew when we joined the SEC we had to invest into a lot of different areas, one being facilities,” said Alden.

He went on to say that by developing the stadium, MU hopes to expand the other facilities for other sports in order to better compete in the SEC.

He also said that sales for tickets are going up, not only for football but for other sports as well.

Pinkel and Alden touched on the other sports at MU, touching on J’den Cox winning the national championship with Missouri wrestling, volleyball winning the SEC championship and the other accomplishments Missouri athletics have accomplished this year. Alden talked about how MU is constantly trying to elevate itself to be a better university, from sports to the students. He really happy is to see Chancellor Loftin out and about at the games.